2010 Outlook

So 2010 looks interesting. I will soon learn how to live my life with a 4-year-old, 14-month-old, and a new baby. Right now, I imagine my days spent at home, afraid to go anywhere because I will have to carry Elle on one hip, and an infant carrier on the other! How do people do it?? My mother-in-law had 3 boys in 4 years and she survived.....plus 2 additional kids shortly after. So it must be do-able.

Brett just asked me if I had any New Years Resolutions. Yes, yes I do!

#1 Lose the 30 pounds I gained this pregnancy, along with the 20 I never lost from Elle's pregnancy, and the 10 I never lost from Ryann's pregnancy....yuck! 60 pounds! I know I can do it because from the day I met Brett until our wedding (1 year later) I was able to lose 50 pounds. So I REALLY need to be motivated to do it!!

#2 Breast feed the baby for a year. This was a goal with Ryann and Elle, but because I was working and then pregnant, I was not able to do it. I really, really want to make it a whole year! Here are my reasons: it is FREE and formula is about 180 dollars a month; it is good for the baby; it is easier than making and cleaning bottles; and it will help me lose weight.


#3 Have more PATIENCE!! I have NEVER been good at this. Now that I am able to stay home with the kids, I need to be more patient. I find myself snapping at Ryann all day and it is not fair to either of us. I see so many behaviors in her that she is learning from me, and I don't want her to be impatient as well. So my goal is to watch myself and react with PATIENCE as much as possible!! This will be harder than losing all that weight since I have been this way for so long. It will be really hard to change this part of myself.


We have so much happening this year! In 7 days we will have our new little, yet to be named baby here.

Then we have Ryann's 4th birthday! We are planning to invite some of her friends to go bowling - we have never taken Ryann bowling, but it sounds fun.

In April our whole family (Mom, Dad, Me, Brett, Ryann, Elle, Baby, Emily, Ben, Mary, Kaytie) will be going to Disney World! We have been planning this trip for months and we are soooo excited!!

Hopefully we will do lots of camping this next summer. Last summer was pretty cold, but we still managed to camp a few times. We plan to take another trip to the North Shore.

We also have Brett's older brother's wedding in August! Sean and Jenn are getting married and we are really excited for them! We love Jenn, and feel like she is part of the family already.

After that - who knows! Ryann will start preschool in the fall (we are still looking into sending her to Heartland Christian Academy, if we can afford to) and after that, we'll see!

Happy New Year!